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Amid record low birth rates and an aging population, Pope Francis urges Italians to have more children. The Italian government also expands a campaign to encourage at least 500,000 births annually by 2033.
2024-05-10

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy meets with Pope Francis during a private audience in the Vatican.
2023-05-13

Thousands of Indigenous people gather in Maskwacis, Alberta, to hear an apology from Pope Francis for the past abuse and cultural suppression at Catholic residential schools across Canada.
2022-07-25

Óscar Romero, the Roman Catholic Archbishop of San Salvador assassinated while celebrating Mass in 1980, is canonized by Pope Francis. Six other canonizations, including that of Pope Paul VI, are also announced.
2018-10-14

Pope Francis changes Catholic Church teaching to fully reject the death penalty, saying that it would work to abolish the death penalty worldwide.
2018-08-2

Pope Francis accepts the diplomatic credentials of new ambassadors to the Holy See from Azerbaijan, Chad, India, Liechtenstein, New Zealand, Swaziland, and Yemen. In his welcoming address, the Pope mentions "the key role that dialogue plays in enabling diversity".
2017-12-14

Pope Francis, in his annual pre-Christmas speech, urged the Roman Curia (cardinals and bishops who direct Holy See actions), to follow his "catalogue of virtues," e.g., to show more maturity, honesty, humility, and sobriety in their tasks. He listed "Curial antibiotics" to treat the "15 ailments of the Curia" he outlined last year and which still plague the Vatican.
2015-12-21

The three-week synod on the family convened by Pope Francis at the Vatican concludes with traditional Catholic orientations toward marriage and the family intact.
2015-10-24

Pope Francis condemns the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria for violence against women, children, and ethnic minorities.
2014-12-25

Pope Francis gives his first "Urbi et Orbi" speech calling for peace amidst the Syrian civil war and the 2013 South Sudan political crisis.
2013-12-25